


A Game Afoot

by starstruck1986



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bondage, Chastity Device, Edging, M/M, Orgasm Denial, Watersports
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-03-12 04:57:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3344441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starstruck1986/pseuds/starstruck1986
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One enjoys pushing, another enjoys being pushed; neither expected to enjoy it together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Game Afoot

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Edging, chastity device, forced urination / bathroom control, orgasm denial, bondage, praise!kink, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it breathplay, masturbation, age disparity.
> 
> Author's Notes: Nnnngh this prompt was delicious to write. Thanks for prompting it. Thanks to S, my long-suffering beta.

** A Game Afoot **

Biting back a moan, Ron leant back in his chair and tried to get comfortable. It was impossible and the aim of the game, but he tried nonetheless. There were still another four agonising hours before he’d receive any form of release or relaxation. And a meeting in the middle of the Ministry, in his work robes, was not the time to really start itching for the device to come off. Discreetly he palmed his crotch and bit down hard onto his tongue.  
  
Of course he’d answered the summons. Of course he would play along. The way it all made him burn was too much to resist. But he’d forgotten just how hard it could be to go through a normal day with a steel, magically reinforced cage around his genitals.  
  
Just thinking about it made him hard – or, rather, it made his cock _try_ to get hard, but the device prevented it from becoming so. And that thought, in turn, made him all the more turned on.  
  
He would never have guessed that he would find so much pleasure in denial and restriction. Everyone else in the meeting had a cup of steaming coffee or tea in front of them; Ron didn’t, because he’d already had two and four hours was an awfully long time to suffer a full bladder.  
  
Especially when he wasn’t allowed to empty it. Nothing was to trickle out of his slit without the express permission of the man who had locked the cage on him.  
  
 _Shut up._  
  
Ron bit hard into his cheek as lust rocked through him, causing his pulse to thump along in his ears.  
  
“Weasley?”  
  
He jumped and looked guiltily up from the table, where his eyes had fallen. The deputy head of the Auror department was looking at him both disdainfully and expectantly. Ron cleared his throat. He had no idea what anybody had been saying. His attention had been elsewhere.  
  
“I asked if you would be willing to put in a few extra hours this evening to try and clear the backlog of paperwork?”  
  
 _No._  
  
“Does it really need all of us?” he asked, coughing to cover the thickness of his voice.  
“Well, no. I’ve got these two doing double shifts and I was hoping that both yourself and Potter would stay and help shift the parchment; It’s easier with two Senior Aurors. You can cut a lot of red tape that Juniors can’t. I’ll give you this weekend off?”  
  
Ron forced himself to take several deep breaths and hoped that nobody noticed. A few more hours meant more hours locked inside his cage and not urinating. He had never worn the device for that long and he had never had to test his strength for that long.  
  
And Severus would be displeased.  
  
“Sure,” he said, forcing a smile onto his face. “That’s fine. I can stay.”  
  
***  
“D’you want to get something to eat?” Harry asked, as they both readied themselves to leave the office.  
  
Ron had his coat done up and his messenger bag slung around his body. He was fit to burst with need for the loo.  
  
“Can’t. Exciting night ahead.” He allowed himself to smile for the first time since receiving news of his overtime. “And I’m already late.”  
“Exciting night with who?” Harry asked curiously, threading his scarf around his neck.  
“Never you mind.” Ron started towards the door. “Could be nobody. Man can have fun by himself, y’know.”  
  
Harry snorted and followed him, tapping his wand against the wall and extinguishing the candles of their office. Ron held the door open for him as he stepped out into the corridor.  
  
“Thanks.” They started walking towards the lifts. “But really, Ron. Who is it that you keep skipping off to every night?”  
“It’s not _every_ night,” Ron said indignantly. “Last night we went to Quidditch, didn’t we? Unless I’m in a secret relationship with you, then you’re wrong.”  
“You couldn’t afford me,” Harry jibed.  
“Wouldn’t want to mate, not my type.”  
“Then who is?”  
  
Ron allowed Harry to pester him with a good natured smile on his face all the way to the Atrium. Inside was a completely different story. His stomach was churning, his bladder was aching and more than anything, he wanted to get out of his constrictive robes and be free to slump on the nearest soft surface.  
  
Finally, as they neared the long line of Floo connections, Harry huffed and folded his arms over his chest. Ron shifted his weight between his feet and desperately tried not to think of pissing.  
  
“What shift are you on tomorrow?” he asked begrudgingly, accepting that he would get no more out of Ron.  
“Night.” Ron made a face. “But then we have that weekend off.”  
“Come for dinner on Sunday?”  
“So you and Ginny can try and bully me into telling you who I’m seeing?”  
“Exactly.”  
“You’re shameless, Harry.”  
“I’m not, I just give a shit, Ron.” Harry’s eyes bore into him. “And I need to know that you’re happy, that you’re…”  
“Surviving? Harry, we split up two years ago.”  
“Has it been that long?” Harry’s eyebrows lifted into his scruffy fringe. “Well. Hermione’s moved on so far she’s engaged. What about you, Ron?”  
“It’s none of your business, you nosey sod.”  
  
Harry huffed again and Ron suddenly felt a surge of shame about keeping his best friend in the dark. Hermione had done him a massive favour by keeping the real reason for their breakup to herself. It was as amicable as it could have been, in the circumstances. Ron hadn’t seen it coming but he wondered, sometimes, in sleepless nights alone in his bed, whether she had. She’d taken the news a lot better than he had, at any rate.  
  
 _And that’s just like her, to be more accepting of the fact that her boyfriend’s gay than he is._  
  
It had been a slow awakening within him. Completely out of the blue. One day he’d been dribbling over his fiancée’s tits and the next, he’d experienced a strange tingle of desire seeing a male Junior Auror bend over in front of him.  
  
He felt heat rushing to his cheeks and knew he had to leave.  
  
“I’ll come round on Sunday.”  
“One. Don’t be late.”  
“I’ll try.”  
  
Ron returned Harry’s hand gesture by way of goodbye and watched his best friend disappear into green flames.  
  
His bladder gave a sudden press of urgency and Ron hurried forwards, scooped up a handful of Floo Powder and cast it into the flames. He whispered his destination, not out of fear of being overheard, but simply because it was nice to be quiet for a moment, before the storm.  
  
***  
The kiss was long and slow, everything he’d hoped against. Ron found himself pressed against a wall, his bladder screaming for release so acutely that he felt sick. But he would not give in. He would not ask. Severus had to know what state he’d be in by eight in the evening, not having been to the toilet for twelve hours. Severus would push him just to his limit and then relent.  
  
“I missed you.” The endearment was a whisper straight into his ear. Ron shivered against Severus’ body, only allowing himself the comfort of clinging on tight to it.  
“I missed you more,” he muttered, before latching onto Severus’ neck, just below his ear – just where he liked it.  
  
Ron was rewarded with a little groan of pleasure and few seconds of indulgence in being allowed to continue. But then Severus pulled out of his grip and stared at him with narrowed eyes.  
  
“And you’ve behaved yourself all day? No touching? You’ve followed the rules?”  
“I’ve been an angel,” Ron promised, leaning back against the wall and quirking his eyebrows.  
  
He was twenty-four. His lover was forty-four. Twenty years stood between them but, after so many experiments and sessions, very little else did. They’d seen each other for nearly a year and each time, Ron left the wizard’s house feeling sated, debauched and utterly content.  
  
It didn’t surprise him that Severus Snape had a real thing for control in the bedroom. It did surprise Ron, however, that he freely gave it up. And that he enjoyed being pushed the very edges of his limit and then dragged screaming back to the start. It was a delicious game they played.  
  
It wasn’t every time, but it was _a lot_ of the time. The device hadn’t been in use that long, only a few weeks, but it was already pushing their evenings (and mornings, afternoons, quick breaks and more) into excellence.  
  
But, before any of that, Ron needed to piss and he needed to do it soon. There was no way around it. He met Severus’ eyes and found that he was being smirked at.  
  
“You think this is funny?” he asked incredulously.  
“Very.”  
“You try being forced into this thing and then having to sit in a two hour meeting and then do endless paperwork until eight o’ clock.”  
“Poor you,” Severus mocked. He walked over and gently stroked Ron’s hair. “Sweet, poor little Ronnie. So hard done by and ill-treated. You should find yourself a nice older man to pander to you and indulge you. Not one who gets a rise out of seeing how an excitable little boy like you can control his dick.”  
  
Ron flew forward so fast that he took Severus by surprise. He snatched a kiss off him before he could think to do anything about it. He was tall but Ron was taller, and, just for a moment, the momentum and control was with him.  
  
“I don’t want a nice, kind older man.” He let his fingers fist in the hair at the nape of Severus’ neck. He pulled his head back, exposing his throat. “I want a sarcastic, sadistic son of a bitch who can make me scream and come all over myself.”  
  
He licked a brazen stripe along Severus’ left jawbone. He tugged on the hair he held.  
  
The wind puffed out of his lungs as he was slammed back into the wall. A chill curled over his skin alerting him to the fact he was suddenly and gloriously nude. His arms were drawn up over his head and clasped to the wall. His legs were guided roughly and widely apart and then kept there by a metal bar and cold iron manacles around his ankles.  
  
His desperation kicked up another five notches and all he wanted was for Severus to make his body sing.  
  


* * *

  
With his hand on the flat, tight lower stomach of the lanky redhead bound against the wall of his living room, Severus felt alive.  
  
Ron was panting, as he’d expect when the boy hadn’t passed water for twelve hours with someone palpating his bladder. The skin across his pectorals, collarbones and the base of his throat was flushed, the redness creeping ever higher with each passing second.  
  
Severus took a moment to appreciate the sight and used his free hand to fondle himself. As much as tormenting Ronald Weasley turned him on, knowing that he was found sexually attractive went a long way to making the redhead happy. He lapped praise and appreciation up like a grateful puppy. It made a beautiful young man transform into something almost ethereal.  
  
“You’ve been a very, very good boy,” he said slowly, reaching up to cup Ron’s cheek.  
“I have,” Ron confirmed, his eyes earnest and wide.  
  
Severus always knew when he was lying. It was with the knowledge of his toy’s obedience that he turned and took a pot off the side board. He placed it in between Ron’s legs, just a little way out from his body. He took Ron in hand, loving the warmth of the metal which encased the forcedly-flaccid penis inside. He prised it upward, so that the tip aimed into the pot. Severus inched closer and Ron tensed, the light definition of his muscles rippling beneath his freckled skin.  
  
“How much do you want this, hmm?” he whispered into the boy’s ear. “How hard does it ache?”  
“So much.” Ron’s reply trembled in delivery. “I want it so much.”  
“I bet you do.” Severus pressed his lips to the sensitive hollow beneath Ron’s ear. He inhaled his lover’s scent and shivered.  
  
Slowly, he extended his tongue and began to work the tender flesh with it, flicking, circling and kissing it. Ron let out half a moan before letting it die on his lips. Severus had not yet given any instruction as to whether he would be allowed to make noise. Severus’ cock gave another twinge at his subject’s submission.  
  
“You may make as much noise as you like.” He resumed tormenting Ron’s skin.  
  
He knew he was being cruel, making the redhead wait. But it was so delicious watching him squirm, trying to keep hold of his control, fighting the urges. Severus inhaled from Ron’s hair and put his lips at Ron’s ear. He began to gently hiss through his teeth.  
  
“Oh, god!” Ron’s cry was agonised. Severus hid his grin in thick red hair. “Oh… oh… oh…”  
“You wouldn’t be losing control, would you?”  
  
Ron furiously shook his head and held his breath, tightening his chest and abdomen.  
  
“Good, good boy.” He released what he held and dragged his fingernails through the wiry, russet curls just north the cage. Ron shuddered. His throat bobbed.  
  
Severus took hold of the cage once again and pointed Ron towards the pot. “Do not spill a drop, do you hear me? If you do, you know the punishment.”  
  
Weakly, Ron nodded, his breath coming in shallow pants.  
  
“One…” Severus let the pad of his forefinger nudge the soft flesh between the metal bars of the cage. “Two.” He caressed what he could reach of the boy’s sac with his little finger. “Three.”  
  
It didn’t come immediately and this drove Ron mad. He’d needed it for so long that his body fought him as he tried to piss, causing him to rock his hips in frustration.  
  
Severus didn’t look down as the sound of a strong stream of liquid hitting the bottom of the porcelain rose in the air. Instead he kept his eyes on Ron’s face, drinking in every second of the excruciated expression on the twenty-four-year-old’s face.  
  
It seemed to go on forever and Ron was moaning by the end of it, his mouth open around the long, husky sound. At the end he gasped once, twice, and his belly bounced with the breaths of relief that he gulped.  
  
His head hung and his chin was on his chest. His entire face had become flushed, right to the tips of his ears. Severus stepped away and vanished the pot with a wave of his hand. For his own taste, he took up a tissue and gently dabbed at Ron’s foreskin. Then he got down on his knees and spread his fingers over Ron’s hips, pressing him back into the wall.  
  
Ron was instantly alert again; he lifted his head and put it back against the wall, keeping his eyes locked straight ahead.  
  
“You really are a very, very good boy,” Severus promised him. He ducked his head and pressed a kiss to the inside of a hairy thigh.  
“For you.”  
  
Severus rewarded that response with a gentle lick at the flesh still encased by the unforgiving steel cage. The only hint that it affected Ron was in a slight shake of his knees.  
  
“With each day I find I’m liking this more,” Severus said airily, before using magic to dispel the locking charm in the metal.  
His hand fell onto unguarded cool flesh. Ron let out a small squeak of pleasure.  
  
Severus didn’t see the point in waiting any longer. For him, the sooner he had Ron panting, desperate to come and trying hard not to, the better. He could sense in the way that Ron was holding himself that he felt the same way; he’d had a long day and there was exhaustion beginning to pool in the bags under his eyes. Their game tonight would be short but hopefully sweet.  
  
He licked the tip first before taking the entirety of Ron’s softness into his mouth. He knew from experience that it wouldn’t take long before it was replaced with demanding rigidness. He gave a hard suck and pulled back to lap delicately at the head. He stayed there as Ron grew in front of his face, smelling of a full day’s musk and sweat. He quickened the pace, flicking his tongue at the cock at his lips. He tasted urine and salt and closed his eyes.  
  
He would never admit it to anybody, but a certain peace stole over him whilst he was on his knees, fellating a boy half his age who had no option but to stand there and take it. He glanced up and met Ron’s gaze; the redhead quickly looked away again.  
  
Smiling to himself, Severus let his lips become heavily involved, mashing them against slippery skin in kisses of sorts. He alternated between that and licking. Ron shifted uncomfortably against the metal which bound him to the wall.  
  
“You taste so good.” Severus mouthed the words, knowing that his breath would tickle and the heat delight.  
  
He lost track of the minutes, concentrating only on the taste, sensation and response he was getting. He knew he’d been at it for some time when his jaw started to ache and, more tellingly, Ron let out a craving moan above him. He upped the pace somewhat and earned himself another whimper. Eventually Ron started to gasp, his cock fully erect and purpling at the head. Severus reached up and cupped tightened testicles in his hand.  
  
A dash of further saltiness on his tongue was all the warning Severus needed to abruptly pull away and get to his feet. Ron was left open-mouthed, his chest heaving, but Severus watched as the redhead mentally shook off the deft termination after a few moments of delirium and pulled his control back.  
  
Severus dragged a chair from a nearby desk and set it directly in front of Ron’s stretched body. He sat down in it, keeping his legs apart and ensuring that his robes were loose. He unbuttoned them once he was sure that Ron’s eyes were glued to him and pushed his underwear down. He took himself in hand and let out a slight grunt when he stretched his erection out. Ron’s mouth was loose and sagging open as he concentrated on watching.  
  
“Does it turn you on, knowing you do this to me?” Severus asked, keeping his voice low and steady. “Knowing that you have to do so little to send me into this state?”  
  
He began to stroke himself from tip to base and back again. He kept his eyes on Ron, who had begun to blush in earnest.  
  
“I think about you when I’m at work. I think about you when I’m out. I think about bending you over and stuffing myself in your tight hole, fucking you no matter who might find us, who might see you spread out and taking me. Sometimes I let them watch. Sometimes I torment you until they find pleasure from watching you be debased.”  
  
His own pulse kicked up a notch as he thought about what he was saying. The images that those fantasies threw up made his throat dry.  
  
“And I think about you on your knees, sucking, that pretty mouth stretched around me… coming down your throat. Watching you swallow it.”  
  
Ron exhaled hard and the muscles in his outstretched arms tightened as his fists clenched.  
  
Severus felt silent, keeping up the motion with his hand and holding eye contact.  
  
More minutes passed as they, seemingly, got lost in one another’s eyes. Severus had never thought himself prone to such romanticism, but he couldn’t deny that Ron brought it out in him. There was such affection and joy in the young wizard it was hard to stay cold to him for long. They’d only seen each other three times before Severus had felt so relaxed around Ron that he’d let him stay the night – a first in his entire life. He’d had plenty of sex along the way, but never to the depth and emotional attachment that they had built between them.  
  
In short, he was in love and this shocked him above all else. He’d fallen in love once before and had been met with death. After that he’d sworn off it and closed himself off at every opportunity.  
  
He’d spent a lot of time pondering whether what he felt was true love or just intense lust. He was so _aware_ of himself when Ron was around, so aware of how he acted, looked and spoke. He cared what the redhead thought of him. He cared what Ron was _feeling._  
  
That was how he had allowed himself to be pulled into the game between them. That wasn’t entirely fair, he knew – Ron had not been some hell-bent seductress with a game all of his own. The sticky, breathy unions between them were entirely a two-man affair and Severus held his hands up to that.  
  
But Ron had ensnared him so thoroughly that Severus couldn’t help but blame him a little for that. That they pushed the boundaries a little further afield with every coupling was so erotic and exciting to Severus that he wondered how far they would eventually go.  
  
It was the first signs of climax in his own body, teased out by possibility-laden lust, which dragged him from his mind. He immediately let go of himself and straightened his spine. Ron’s pupils had dilated to an absurd size. He was glowing from head to toe.  
  
“Beautiful.”  
  
Severus got to his feet and quickly unbuttoned the rest of his robe. He stepped out of it, leaving it puddled over the floor. He went straight to Ron and without pretence latched onto his neck, biting and sucking over every inch his lips found. He reached down and began to fondle, making sure to pay equal attention to both erection and sac. He massaged everything in turn, flitting back and forth between the two. Quickly. Slowly. Over and over. He cocked his head and started on the other side of Ron’s throat.  
  
Ron’s responses came quicker than they had before. All too soon he was breathing shallowly and his hips were rocking against Severus’ hand.  
  
“They’re working you too hard,” Severus murmured against his cheek. “You deserve…” he gave a particularly hard squeeze to the cock in his hand. “Better.”  
  
Ron looked like it would have cost him dearly to respond and stayed quiet. Severus gave him some peace by peppering kisses all over his collar bones and lower throat. He kept his hand busy, ignoring the pain which worsened in his wrist with every stroke. He could have stopped – Merlin knew he’d stopped before and enjoyed the reaction. But desperation broke through him like water released from a dam as Ron let out a serious of frantic whimpers. It swamped him: a visceral, raw need to force Ron to lose control at his hand.  
  
Normally his thrill came from watching Ron fight his body’s natural responses to stimulation. He wasn’t hating it as he stood there, wanking his lover with firm, punishing rubs. He was addicted to the look of desperation taking hold of Ron’s facial features. He wanted to see it dominate. To see that desire smash his resolve to shards. He wanted Ron to shatter in his hands.  
  
It scared him enough to slow the pace. Ron let out a self-pitying moan and began to mumble, begging over and over for Severus not to stop, to keep going, to let him come.  
  
What did it make him, Severus wondered, to desire the breaking of a sexual partner? To make him crave the sight of a man reduced to begging and pleading, to lose his mind so completely over the event? To be the man to pick him up again, to pet him back to sanity and peace?  
  
A chill ran down his spine.  
  
<hr/>  
  
“Oh god, please…”  
  
Ron was shattered. Every muscle was screaming from his bound position, his cock was too hard for pleasure. Severus was relentless, though, with a strange look in his eye that Ron had never seen before. He’d had enough, but pure grit and stubbornness prevented him from really showing it.  
  
Severus was sucking him again, with one finger buried deep inside Ron’s backside. He had long fingers. Ron felt so awkward strung up, trapped, fingered and sucked at the same time. Every now and then he blinked back moisture which gathered in his eyes out of sheer frustration and want.  
  
He’d given up trying to make sense of what was coming out of his mouth, too. In his head he was screaming, begging for release, for a rest. But he refused to give in.  
  
He moaned when the hot mouth disappeared. Severus blew on his cock and Ron was vaguely aware of howling at the ceiling.  
The next thing he knew, Severus crowded his body into the wall and had a firm hold of his chin.  
  
“Do you want to come?” the question was curtly put.  
  
Ron panted and refused to answer.  
  
“Do you want to come, slut?”  
  
Dirty talk would finish him.  
  
“Or do you want to keep on going? Perhaps I can bring those tears out properly, hmm?”  
  
A tug on his balls made Ron grunt.  
  
 _Fuck fuck fuck fuck oh god just let me cum…._  
  
“My good boy would want to continue…” Severus herded ever closer, trapping Ron’s cock between their bodies. “He would want to please me. Do you want to please me, pet?”  
  
Ron froze, the masterly delivery of the name stunning him for a moment. It never failed to provoke him in all the right ways and Severus knew that.  
  
“Such a good pet,” he went on. “So obedient. So beautiful. Who do you belong to, _pet?_ ”  
“Y-you.” Ron could barely get the word out with his mouth so dry.  
  
 _Let me let me let me let me let me let me. Please._  
  
Thin fingers wrapped around his throat and applied pressure. Ron felt his pulse surge upward. White specks appeared in his vision, not from any real tightness of Severus’ hand, but from sheer desire and excitement.  
  
“Come.”  
  
The permission was the most beautiful word in the world at that moment. Ron inwardly cringed to hear the bawl he let out as he gave in. He sagged back against the wall. Severus immediately covered his mouth with a kiss, robbing him of the right to howl along with an orgasm so intense it almost hurt which poured from his body. Euphoria claimed him.  
  
Ron couldn’t have said which way was up or where he was. He was so staggered by the intensity he started to sink, putting painful pressure on his shoulders and wrists.  
  
He cried out in pain and frustration and the sound seemed to snap Severus out of whatever had come over him. Ron had never seen his eyes so dark and determined. He wasn’t sure whether he was afraid or simply more turned on.  
  
Whatever Severus had been before, he rapidly became just what Ron needed at that moment. He immediately released Ron’s hands and caught him when he fell forward. He held on tight as he freed sweating feet from the spreader bar. And then, without warning or question, Ron found himself swept up into an embrace. Severus staggered slightly under his weight but persevered, carrying him to the sofa and setting him down as though he was a precious newborn child.  
  
“Here.”  
  
Severus threw a soft, fleecy blanket around his shoulders and pulled it so that it covered everything except his legs. He wrapped it tightly around Ron’s chest and softly pulled one hand free so that Ron could hold it together himself. He then bent and wrapped Ron’s feet, ankles and shins in a duplicate blanket, making sure that they were completely covered. Only his knees were left poking out. Ron immediately relaxed, tipping his head back and closing his eyes. He was half-asleep by the time Severus sat down next to him. Ron cracked open his eyes and saw a tray floating in front of him, carrying a large glass of water and a broken up bar of Honeydukes’ milk chocolate. He opened his mouth when Severus fed him a piece, chewing through it slowly. He accepted a tiny sip of water next and the comfortable warmth of Severus’ arm about his shoulders.  
  
They kept on and Ron found a sleepy, fulfilling joy in being hand-fed by the man who’d just brought him to his knees.  
  
“Are you all right, Ron?” The tone was serious and the question was followed by a tender kiss to his forehead.  
“Is that my name?” he asked sleepily, grinning as he rolled his head to look at Severus.  
  
He looked fearful.  
  
“I’m fine,” Ron promised. “Just a bit blissed out, I reckon…”  
“I’m not surprised. I’ve never seen you like that.” Severus smoothed the blanket at his shoulders for no reason.  
“And I’ve never seen you like that, either.”  
  
He watched in awe as Severus Snape blushed.  
  
“I liked it,” he assured him. “I really, really liked it. And god… when you put your hand around my throat.” He shook his head. “Merlin.”  
“I hope I did not push you too hard?”  
  
Ron shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. But I’m safe and you’re here and you’re looking after me… I’m fine, Severus.”  
  
The older wizard still looked worried as he pulled Ron over to him. His arms wrapped tightly around his blanketed torso and didn’t let go. Ron leant his head against whatever it met and closed his eyes. He was almost asleep again when he realised something that made him feel very, very guilty.  
  
“You didn’t come,” he blurted.  
“I did.”  
“When?”  
“When you did. You were rather too… busy, shall we say? To notice. But I am plenty satisfied, do not worry.”  
“Oh.”  
  
It was Ron’s turn to redden even though his face was hidden, glad that only he knew the magnitude of the contentment swelling in his chest at the very idea that he could make a man come untouched. Especially _this_ man.  
  
“Bed?” Severus asked. “Or shall we stay here?”  
“Here.” Ron felt so relaxed he never wanted to move again.  
“Do you mind if I have a drink?”  
“Only If I can have one too.”  
“I doubt that would be wise, my love.”  
  
Ron blinked once and sat up properly.  
  
“Your what?” he asked, incredulous.  
“Nothing.” Severus looked like a deer startled out of a wood. “Nothing, Ron.”  
“Don’t lie to me,” Ron said. “I know when you’re lying, Severus.”  
  
There was a moment when he thought Severus was going to keep on pretending that he hadn’t said anything. He waited, hoping he wouldn’t. And then Severus sighed and slumped where he sat.  
  
“Yes, I suppose you do.”  
“Did you mean it?” Ron asked; not even the spaced state of his brain could prevent the emotion rising within him at what he had heard. “Because if you did mean it, that would be… fucking great. Really.”  
  
Severus stared at him, apparently lost for words. Ron pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders and waited.  
  
“I did.”  
  
 _Holy shit._  
  
 **-fin-**


End file.
